Ta'ang

Wang BingHong Kong / France147 minutes2016PGColourTa'ang

The urgent new documentary from acclaimed Chinese filmmaker Wang Bing (West of the Tracks, Three Sisters) takes us into the refugee camps on the Chinese border populated by those fleeing the ongoing civil war in Myanmar.

The subject of this remarkable visual
document will likely be unfamiliar to most
audiences: the ongoing civil war in Myanmar
that has forced much of the country's
population to flee. Taking a non-didactic
approach, Wang Bing allows his filmed material
to speak for itself, creating an achingly
intense portrait of migrant life.

Violent unrest has displaced thousands of
people, many of them members of the Ta'ang
ethnic minority, over the Myanmar-China
border and into a virtual no man's land.
But even there, the conflict is never far off.
In 2015, Wang spent time in the refugee
camps, sharing in the dangers of their lives
and virtually erasing the distance between
camera and subject. Unlit and little-edited
images stream across the screen, showing us
the men, women, elderly folk, and children
roaming the undeveloped land. Struggling
to preserve what few possessions they
still have, they uphold their dignity on the
muddy roads and in the filth of the camps.
Cannons boom like distant thunder, providing
a gloomy soundtrack for their labour in
sugarcane fields surrounded by red Chinese
flags. Their sleepless nights are illuminated
by bonfires raining scintillating sparks, and
by the bluish glow of mobile phones as the
migrants anxiously seek contact with those
they have left behind.

The camera focuses on quotidian
moments; Wang eliminates all traces of
scripting as he wanders among the Ta'ang,
trying to discover and touch their souls as
much as to document their history. The
result feels more real and raw than most
documentaries on exodus and refugees:
eerily beautiful and deeply touching.